Allison Brennan - Cutting Edge

“Did I miss something?” Sean asked.

Nora said, “We know that Larkin met with a college-aged girl the day he was murdered. If we can rule out Anya Ballard, that gives us more reason to trust your memory about what you may have heard.”

She spotted Sheriff Sanger driving up to take her to the county jail. “Sanger’s here,” she said, glancing at her watch. “Can we meet later at FBI headquarters? Say around seven?”

“I’ll be there. I’m going to work with Jason on Russ’s laptop, see if we can find anything after your ERT prints it.”

“How do you know-” She stopped herself. “You’ve worked with him before.”

“I recommended him for the job,” Duke said. “He used to work for Rogan-Caruso part-time while in college.”

“I should have known.” But she smiled. “Thanks, both of you, for your help.”

Help? That was kind of formal. But before Duke could banter with her about their kiss yesterday, she walked off and slid into the front seat of Sheriff Sanger’s truck. They drove off.

His help. He might be a consultant on this case, but he was going to be far more than mere help to Special Agent Nora English.

“I’m going to stay on campus,” Sean said, “keep my ears open and my mouth closed. I might be able to pick up on something, like who the fourth person was.”

“If there is a fourth person,” Duke said, “and he or she had any part in the suicide, then that person is dangerous. Especially if she killed them and tried to make it look like suicide.”

Sean bristled at the suggestion he couldn’t take care of himself. “Duke, when are you ever going to treat me like a grown-up? I’m nearly twenty-five. I have two college degrees, a master’s, and an I.Q. that exceeds yours.”

“Smart people do dumb things.” Duke realized he said the wrong thing-his “stating the obvious” problem with Sean. He was about to apologize when Sean hit the roof of his car.

“I’m going to work for Kane.”

“Like hell you are.”

“You’re not my guardian anymore, Duke. I don’t even know if you’re my brother.”

“I say the wrong thing and you jump down my throat? I’m concerned about your safety. You think maybe you’re overreacting here-”

“I’m not overreacting,” Sean said. “You treat me as if I’m incapable of making tough decisions. You don’t like my friends, you won’t let me work for Rogan-Caruso, and when I can do something that helps, you balk because it’s dangerous. You can’t protect me for the rest of my life. Dammit, Duke. You were the only person I had after Mom and Dad died. Kane had his causes, Liam and Eden had each other, and I had no one-but you never walked away. I love you for that. But I can’t be coddled, protected, and managed. I don’t want to be. I want to contribute to Rogan-Caruso in a meaningful way, not under the watchful eye of my big brother.”

Duke had never heard Sean articulate his feelings like this before. Sean usually mumbled his discontentment and walked away. Duke had always chosen to ignore Sean’s complaints rather than get to the heart of the matter. It was easier for Duke to pretend that he was still in control than to accept that Sean was a man who could make his own decisions, and was smart enough to make the right ones.

Still, if anything happened to Sean because of a case or job that Duke had assigned him, Duke would be lost.

“I’m proud of you, Sean.”

Sean shuffled his feet. “You’ve never told me that before.”

“Of course I have-” Duke stopped. Hadn’t he? Sean stared at him, dead serious. “I’m sorry,” he continued. “I’ve always been proud of you.”

“Even when I was expelled from Stanford?”

“Furious as anything and I wanted to beat sense into you, but secretly proud that you’d devised and executed such an ingenious plan.”

“Even when you were called to bail me out of jail in Massachusetts because I’d hacked into the Boston Police Department’s database and erased all my parking tickets?”

“You could have saved me a lot of money if you’d been able to do that five years earlier with Eden and her hundred and sixty-some tickets.”

Sean raised his eyebrow, his dimples showing his good humor. “You’re not serious.”

Duke shook his head, then grinned. “But Sean, every time you’ve broken the rules-except for maybe the parking tickets-it was to help someone else, to defend the underdog. You weren’t doing it for personal gain, and I admire that greatly. It’s why I have tremendous respect for Kane. Our brother can be a real jerk, but he’s never done anything in his life for personal glory or wealth. Everything he’s done he’s done for others, and it’s hard not to admire his selflessness.”

“You’re the most selfless person I know,” Sean said.

Duke shook his head. “Okay, go. But I swear, Sean, you watch your ass or I’ll be kicking it hard.”

“Thanks.” Sean started walking back toward the dorm, then turned back. “I’m serious, Duke. Maybe I never said it before. But you were my age when you took the responsibility of raising me. You sacrificed a lot for me. That’s pretty damn selfless.”

“You’re my brother,” Duke said. He’d never thought about anything he did or didn’t do because he had Sean in his life. “It wasn’t a sacrifice.”

“But I’m not your son. And for a while it was okay for you to act like my father. But now? My father is dead. My brother isn’t. I need a brother.”

Duke understood. Damn, he loved his brother. “Okay.”

He walked two steps and turned around again. “By the way, I like that FBI agent. She’s hot.”

Duke coughed. “She’s too old for you.”

“I’m cool with older women.”

Duke frowned. Sean couldn’t be serious. Not only was Nora more than ten years his senior, but she wasn’t available as far as Duke was concerned. Especially to his little brother. Until she told Duke to take a hike, he was going to keep coming back until she gave in to him. Because Duke knew she wanted to. He saw it in her eyes, tasted it on her lips last night.

“Sean, I don’t think-”

“Gotcha!” Sean pretended to lick his finger and made a mark in the air. “She’s not too old for you, bro. Don’t think I couldn’t see how you looked at her.”

“I do not look at Nora any particular way.”

Sean laughed.

“I’m serious,” Duke protested.

“I can see you’re serious,” Sean grinned. “I approve.”

“I’m so glad I have your sanction, little brother.”

He watched Sean saunter off, this time with a wave.

But if he was going to be perfectly honest with himself, he was glad Sean liked Nora. He just hadn’t known his attraction was so obvious. Or maybe Sean was just more observant than Duke gave him credit for.

Nora followed Sheriff Sanger into the county jail. Since the FBI didn’t have detention facilities, she’d been here many times over the years to interview suspects. After arraignment, the accused generally stayed in county jail until trial; then, if convicted, they were transported to a federal penitentiary.

Nora didn’t like how Sanger had made a snap judgment on the suicides. The three could certainly have killed themselves out of guilt, but she needed more. And she needed more than Sanger’s theory that Cole was the instigator. Evidence and motive for a start.

None of this fit in with her experience. And if she couldn’t rely on her experience, what good was she on the squad?

Did she want to be right so badly that she was jeopardizing the case? She didn’t think so, but at the same time she’d had the very strong and very instant reaction that these suicides didn’t fit the mold. And while human behavior certainly couldn’t always be predicted, when someone went way off the reservation, Nora couldn’t help but question it.